


What Aniki Are For

by pinkbowbunny



Category: Dororo (Anime 2019)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-06 02:38:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18841921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkbowbunny/pseuds/pinkbowbunny
Summary: A mostly fluffy exchange between Hyakkimaru and Dororo after the events of episode 18/their reunion. A lil bit sad, but mostly cute. Don't really know how else to describe it. Just Hyakkimaru being supportive for poor Dororo.Please comment or kudo if you like it!





	What Aniki Are For

Dororo headed straight for the nearest, biggest town she could find. The one where she knew a good, reasonably-priced eatery could be located. There she prompty rented a room for the night, laid down, and ordered a really large meal to be brought to them. A feast, pretty much. One of the coins she had paid for it, the rest she kept hidden away.

When the food came Hyakkimaru blinked at it all, despite not really seeing it, he appreciated the many smells wafting into his nose. Dororo had gotten many different kinds of things, all different kinds of flavors to sample. Too bad he still didn't have his taste, but, he'd at least be able to toy with the hints of sugary sweetness, the savory saltiness, the acidic sours -- Though of course with her childish palate Dororo avoided the bitters. But she got a big bowl of rice and a big bowl of buns for them to share.

She justified the excess by mentioning as the food came, "We'll only eat about half, the rest we'll take with us for later! But I'm really, REALLY hungry -- Starving! Things have been crazy the last few days. So... Itadakimasu!" She finally crowed, and without any more thought about it, she first began to absolutely demolish the rice...

Chewing much slower than her, Hyakkimaru considered things over a sweet bun. Dororo liked sweet stuff the most. Hyakkimaru preferred the salt on the grilled fish. He also took one of those too, but he ate the bun first. He had missed Dororo, and without thinking about it, reached for something familiar to her first...

After leaving him a little less than half the rice (she'd normally be gracious and gift him the larger portions, so he didn't mention it, knowing she must truly be as starved as she claimed) Dororo reached for the bowl of sweet buns, taking two, one in each hand. She took an extra sticky-sweet syrup-glazed bun in her right, and in her left, she held a bun sprinkled with sesame seeds, waiting very briefly to be eaten while she inhaled the first one.

"...Dororo." Hyakkimaru finally spoke up, to slow her down. That glazed bun was almost gone in one bite... He got that she was really hungry, but if she wasn't carefuly she might choke... 

...Not that Hyakkimaru was trying to be Dororo's 'mama' or anything, remembering Jukai's tendency to fret over him while he ate. Dororo preferred that he be her 'bro'. after all. But he couldn't help but notice by now that something was a bit off about her... More so than usual...

True, she said they'd save half the food for later, but she'd still gotten an awful lot for one sitting. Not that Dororo couldn't eat a lot, she definitely could, but usually only on someone else's coin. She tended to be more frugal on their own limited budget. Even though they got a little bonus from her dad's stash, it was unlike her to eat so much in one sitting. It could still be explained, if the men who had taken her hadn't fed her and she truly was starving, but even when starving, Dororo would usually at least savor her food. The urgency with with she was eating the large amount she had gotten, that was what tipped Hyakkimaru that something else might be wrong with her.

After all, you eat food to heal your body... Hyakkimaru didn't smell any blood on her, but he imagined that she must have gotten some bruises. She was the type of kid to suck it up and soldier on despite the pain, but maybe the food was an indicator that she was bearing a bit too much lately...

He let her take her time chewing the extra big bite of fried dough in her mouth before she finally reluctantly answered, "What? I said I was extra hungry!"

He nodded, going quiet for a moment and letting her finish the other bun before he said anything else, only speaking up again as she started to peel an orange afterwards, slow and thoughtful. "Dororo... Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

She looked up from the wedge she was about to eat, her hand slipping down with the fruit. "...I just... I just really went through a lot by myself, okay aniki? I just want to eat a whole lot and feel really full right now! Because... If I feel full, maybe it will make me feel happy, and then I won't..."

"...If you're not happy, you're sad. If you're sad, you're hurt." Hyakkimaru logically deduced. "Food helps... But if you're sad enough to want to cry, it means you need help. What do you need? Bandages? A body rub?"

She burned bright red at that. "I don't need a massage! Or bandages! I'm not hurt like that! I'm not hurt... Physically... It's just my pride that's hurt, alright..."

He didn't understand, that was pretty clear. "Pride...? Where's the pride...?" He was still determined to help her.

She snorted, then slowly started to chuckle under her breath. "Silly aniki..." 

Scooting closer to him inch by inch, until she was sitting right next to him, she leaned her head against his shoulder with a short, quiet sigh. She still held the orange in her hands, but she was apparently in no hurry to finish eating it, staring at a wall instead. 

Hyakkimaru waited a while. When she didn't speak up again, he pressed a bit more, "...Why? Why is it silly? You're the one who acts silly. You always try to grab and hold onto me in the middle of the night. You grab and touch my arms and hands a lot. You touch me. You heal me when I am hurt. Why do you push me away when I touch you? You need to heal and touch too. Why do you not like it? I like it..." 

Dororo stiffened up a little, but didn't move away from him. Aniki rarely said so much. He was really confused and curious about this. "...I... I don't know! It's... It's just embarrassing!"

Hyakkimaru still didn't understand. He had never really experienced 'embarrassment'. "Why?"

She thought about it. She couldn't really think of a good reason why, except... "I don't know... It makes me think of... My mama and papa. They used to rub our noses together sometimes..." Actually that wasn't really a reason, why had she gone and told him that...?

"...You want to rub noses instead?" He guessed, and proceeded to bend down towards her.

But she quickly put her arms up, pushing his face away instead. "UWA--?! N-NOOOO--! ANIKI--!" 

She pushed him back, and he huffed at her, "...Then what do I do? To make you feel better? Children are usually comforted by hugs..." And that was about the extent of what he knew about the matter, so if that didn't help, then what?

"I do like hugs. I like to touch, sometimes..." She insisted. "Just, only when I want to! Sometimes... Sometimes I don't like it, though... Sometimes it bothers me to be touched. S-Sometimes... My body feels weird to me... Sometimes I feel like I don't like my body. Not always. Just sometimes..."

Why had she gone and said that, especially... It's not like she could explain why if he asked, and surely that would confuse him. But to her surprise, he actually nodded back to her, "I've felt like that before too..."

...Oh. Well of course he had... Now she felt guilty. Now she felt like she needed to come up with a good explanation for feeling that way, when he had such a better reason and hadn't complained about it like she had. "It's just--! I... I hate being so small! I hate being so weak! I hate that if I'm not quick enough someone can just pick me up and take me away and do whatever they want and I can't even... Damn it..."

Tears were slipping from her eyes and down her cheeks, and she sniffled, loud and wet. She waited for Hyakkimaru to wipe her cheeks, fluff her hair, something... But he stayed still, apparently not wanting to touch her too much without permission now. 

"...A-Aniki...?" She implored softly.

That was all the prodding he needed to understand. Reaching over, he lightly patted the back of her neck and shoulders. "You'll get bigger soon..."

Snickering under her breath, she shook her head. "That's not... Ah, nevermind..." She still didn't feel like explaining it. Still didn't know how to...

Predictably, because of that, he still didn't understand, and still tried to offer solutions to what he thought was the problem. "Still too small... Until Dororo gets bigger... I will protect Dororo."

She blinked up at him, eyes wide and quickly growing wet with tears. She'd normally deny needing such help, as if she were a baby, that was embarrassing! But, after everything she'd been through the last few days... Right now, she just didn't care anymore... She just threw her arms around him, tackling him to the floor, hugging him as tight as her skinny little arms could... "Aniki...!"

Hyakkimaru stayed still on the floor, letting her squeeze her arms around him and press her cheek to his chest, sniffling to herself until she had fallen asleep. 

...Effectively trapping him there as her makeshift bed for the night.

Oh well... He'd finish his food in the morning for breakfast...

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO


End file.
